Exploring Factors Related to Problematic Internet Use in Childhood and Adolescence
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Exploring Factors Related to Problematic Internet Use in Childhood and Adolescence Yangmi Lim 1 & Su-Jung Nam 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract This study used data from a Korean national survey to identify the relationships between problematic Internet use (PIU) and Internet use and psychological functioning variables in children (n = 1221) and adolescents (n = 3671). Data analysis revealed that the rate of PIU is higher in adolescents than in children and that compared to children, adolescents with PIU use the Internet for longer periods than do those without PIU. Moreover, compared to adolescents, children with PIU have a higher tendency to use the Internet for information, entertainment, and communication than do those without PIU. The degree of depression is higher in individuals with PIU than in those without. Therefore, it was concluded that the moderating effect of age cohorts was only found in the relationships between PIU and Internet use time and purpose. Parental education guidelines for each age group and counseling programs for individuals with PIU are suggested. Keywords Problematic Internet use . Time spent on the Internet . Purpose of Internet use . Psychological functioning . Children . Adolescents With the Internet’s growing accessibility, interactivity, and convenience, the rate of Internet use has been increasing annually for decades. To better understand this social phenomenon, studies on the effects of Internet use have been actively conducted since the 1990s. Excessive and/or maladaptive Internet use leads to low academic achievement (Hahn and Kim 2006) and a variety of physical and psychosocial problems such as deterioration in health, conflict with family and friends, anxiety, depression, and difficulty distinguishing between the virtual world and reality (Carli et al. 2013; Ho et al. 2014). A variety of terms, including BInternet addiction^ (IA) and Bproblematic Internet use^ (PIU), have been used to describe the adverse effects of Internet use. These terms refer to a condition in which Internet overuse interferes with daily life and is accompanied by
* Su-Jung Nam [email protected]
1
Department of Home Economics Education, College of Education, Jeonju University, 303 Cheonjam-ro, Wansan-gu, Jeonju 560-759, South Korea
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
withdrawal symptoms after cessation of Internet use, tolerance (increased amounts of time on the Internet to achieve satisfaction), and obsessive thinking about the Internet (Young 1996). The two competing terms, IA and PIU, reflect the different theoretical perspectives from which the deleterious effects of the Internet have been conceptualized (Tokunaga 2015). The addiction perspective treats IA as a mental disorder that shares common traits with substance use and impulse control disorders that manifest in behaviors such as drug use and pathological gambling. Despite the large collection of studies accumulated on the topic, there are some reasons to contend that the la
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